Steamboat Winnie
Steamboat Winnie is a 1928 American animated short film produced by Shires Bros. Studios and released by Celebrity Productions, starring Matthew Mouse, Michelle Mouse, their nemesis Black Peter and Captain Woodpecker in their first appearance. It is notable for being Shires' first non-''Sappy Symphonies'' to be distributed because Roy Oliver Shires and his business partner Walt Disney, having seen The Jazz Singer, had committed himself to producing the first fully synchronized sound cartoon. Voice Cast *Roy Oliver Shires as Matthew Mouse, Michelle Mouse, Greedy Cat, Captain Woodpecker Production *Director: Ub Iwerks (uncredited) *Animation: James Zinnen (uncredited), Carol Allen (uncredited), Warren Johnson (uncredited), Wallace Lester (uncredited) *Story: Carl Beck (uncredited) *Music: Frank Cosgrove (uncredited) Releases Home video VHS *''Michael Shires Cartoon Classics: Limited Gold Editions - Matthew'' *''The Spirit of Matthew'' Laserdisc *''Matthew Mouse: The Black and White Years - Volume One'' DVD *''Matthew Mouse Treasures: Matthew Mouse in Black and White, Volume 1'' *''Vintage Matthew'' *''Matthew Mouse Treasures: The Adventures of Oscar the Ugly Rabbit'' Blu-ray *''Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Diamond Edition'' Plot The film begins with Matthew (nicknamed Steamboat Winnie in this short) piloting a steamboat down a river, happily whistling along to the tune of "Steamboat Bill". He pulls a rope to sound the steamboat's three whistles. The tall and medium whistle sound off in synch but the shortest one stays quiet until it receives a good hit from the medium one. Unbeknownst to Matthew, an angry Captain Black Peter appears behind him and grabs Matthew's torso, stretching it in the process and switches places with him behind the wheel. He proceeds to yell at Matthew and then and sends him back down to the deck. Matthew salutes weakly while Peter turns around. Behind his back, Matthew blows a raspberry. Peter turns around angrily to see Matthew weakly waving his hands, possibly indicating it was just gas. Peter goes to kick Matthew, who races down the stairs, which causes Peter's leg to miss completely and swing around to kick himself in the rear instead. Matthew tumbles down the stairs, slips on a bar of soap, and lands in a bucket of water. A woodpecker nearby mocks him and begins to laugh, which provokes Matthew to throw the bucket of water on the parrot, who squawks for help as Matthew walks away. Peter, who has been watching this whole time, pulls out a slab of chewing tobacco and bites off half of it. He spits in front of him and the spit circles around and hits the bell behind him causing it to ring. Giddy, Peter attempts to do it again. He spits and turns around to watch it hit the bell but gets hit in the face instead which causes him to make a fuss. The film then cuts to a shot of Podunk Landing with two chickens, a duck and a cow stationed on the dock. Steamboat Winnie makes its way around the bend and backs up into the dock. Matthew is lowered down to the dock by a crane near the cow. He fastens a belt around the cow in order to lift him onto the ship. However, the belt is far too big and the cow far too skinny, so all that happens is the cow is caught by the udder hanging upside down. In a panic, Matthew attempts to bring the cow back down by grabbing his tail and gets sprayed by the udder. The cow is lowered back to the dock and Mickey attempts to tighten the belt to no avail. He looks distraught until he sees a wagon of hay and grabs a big fork load to feed to the cow. The cow happily swallows the entire bail and easily fills out to the size of the belt and is raised to the ship. Just then, Michelle Mouse appears on the scene running to catch up to Steamboat Winnie. Matthew jumps aboard the ship and takes off leaving Michelle yelling at the dock. She proceeds to run alongside the river after the steamboat. Calling for help, Matthew hears her and decides to lower the crane to catch her. The crane is lowered by Michelle and the hook proceeds to gently lift of her dress and grab hold of her bloomers carrying her onto the ship. As she is lowered, Michelle drops her fiddle and "Turkey in the Straw" sheet music which bounces over to a goat. The goat sees it and begins to eat the sheet music. Michelle is lowered to the ship and the hook pulls her dress back down. Michelle is happy to see Matthew and turns shyly away to see the goat eating her sheet music. The goat then starts on the fiddle and Matthew attempts to yank it out of his mouth. Matthew struggles but can't pull it out and falls on the ground launching the fiddle into the goat's body which proceeds to bounce around causing music notes to sound. Matthew hears this and gets the idea to use the goat as a phonograph. He opens the goat's mouth and calls Michelle over. Michelle gets the idea and begins to "crank" the goat's tail and "Turkey in the Straw" begins to play. What follows is a lively rendition of the song where Matthew uses a barrel and garbage can as drums, bangs on pots and pans, strokes a washboard, pulls on a cat's tail to make it sing and swings it around his head, uses a duck as a makeshift bagpipe, pulls on little piglets tails to make squeaks, and finally uses the cow's teeth as a makeshift xylophone. After the song, Matthew take a bow and finds Black Peter scowling at him. He attempts to walk away but Peter grabs him and sends him below deck to peel potatoes. Matthew begins to work when the annoying woodpecker flies into the window and begins to mock and laugh at him again provoking Mickey to throw a half-peeled potato at him, sending the woodpecker splashing into the water. Triumphant, Matthew begins to laugh and brings the picture to a close. Category:Films Category:Animated shorts Category:Matthew Mouse shorts Category:Michelle Mouse shorts Category:Black Peter shorts Category:1928 shorts Category:Shires Animation Studios Category:Featured shorts